Jaguars Insider: Breaking down offense's favorite play call

Saturday

Jaguars coach Gus Bradley doesn't need to be told his offense has developed a reputation for throwing screen passes.

"The number of screens we've run this year, you can see that we're a screen team," he said. "We throw bubbles, we throw jailbreaks and we throw tailback screens."

A hallmark of the Jaguars' offense through 10 games, besides an inconsistent run game and being last in the NFL in points, is their commitment to the screen game.

To combat an opponent's pass rush and to get the football into their playmaker's hands quickly are the main goals. This isn't an offense that goes vertical so they hope the short pass turns into a long gain.

Offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch estimated he has called 35 screen plays, including a season-high 14 last week he said gained 96 yards.

"Last week, we called some screens because of the [Cardinals' defensive] front," Fisch said. "You want to make them rush and retrace. When they get tired of retracing, you have a chance to hit the big one."

Every play is an 11-player effort, but a screen pass in particular is a many-things-must-go-right situation.

The linemen must engage with the pass rusher to give the impression it's a regular drop-back.

The running back, receiver or tight end must also sell the play.

Once the pass is thrown, the linemen must get up the field to get second-level blocks.

"Screens are all about timing," center Brad Meester said. "You have to get certain things to work. It's one of those plays you have to rep a lot of times."

The Jaguars have run three types of screens this year. A look at each:

• The running back screen. A play that has been run for all of the Jaguars' tailbacks and both inside and outside the yard-line numbers.

Example: Third-and-14 from the Tennessee 45-yard line in Week 10. Meester and left guard Mike Brewster released from their blocks in 1.66 seconds. Quarterback Chad Henne threw in 2.31 seconds. … Jones-Drew caught the pass between the hash marks. The gain was 17 yards when a blitzing Titans linebacker left the middle of the field open.

"The thing with running back screens, you need to do a good job blocking the first level," Fisch said. "If you can get that squared away and you can get your back to the second level, that's when you can go from a 5-yard gain to a 20-yard gain. We've been a half-man short here or didn't sustain a block enough there so we've ended up with 9 yards instead of 25 yards."

• The tight end screen. The Jaguars have run some type of screen to a tight end that produced gains of 17 yards (Week 2 at Oakland) and 12 yards (Week 5 at St. Louis) to Clay Harbor.

Example: First-and-10 from the Jaguars' 20 last week against Arizona. Meester released his block at 1.31 seconds, but right guard Uche Nwaneri and right tackle Austin Pasztor got caught up in their blocks. Henne threw in 2.50 seconds. Tight end Marcedes Lewis caught the pass inside the numbers and gained 8 yards when he broke a tackle.

"You'll maybe see that play called 5-6 times a season," Fisch said.

• The receiver screen. Fisch said some of these plays are "built-in" calls - if the receiver has off coverage, they get the pass; if it's press coverage, the built-in call is a running play. The slot receiver will be a blocker regardless. This has been the most common Jaguars screen call - my unofficial total is 23 times and gains that included 14, 10, 5, 8, 5 and 6 yards for receiver Cecil Shorts.

Example: First-and-10 from the Jaguars' 20 against San Diego in Week 7. Henne threw in 1.13 seconds. Mike Brown flared out from the slot to block Chargers cornerback Derek Cox. Shorts darted outside for an 8-yard gain.

Of making one guy miss, Fisch said: "That's it. You'd like to make the inside guy miss."

On screens inside the yard-line numbers, the center and a guard lead the way; on screens outside the yard-line numbers, it's a tackle and a guard forming the convoy.

"The traditional screen by the hash-marks are easy to run because you can stay in your same technique and in your same pass set and then move," Nwaneri said. "The screens that are further outside, you have to make a more drastic move to get out there and you can't sneak out of your pass set because the defensive player will see it and follow me right out there."

Expect the screen game to be a part of the plan against Houston to help contain premier pass rusher J.J. Watt.

"Teams that run a lot of screens get better at screens," Fisch said. "The more we run it, the more successful we're going to become at it."

Ryan O'Halloran: (904) 359-4401

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